Activity for Mark Bakerâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comment | Post #282596 |
My problem with any form of question about the current page is that it assumes that the search system worked perfectly and any fault lies in the page. But that is often not the problem. The reader is on the wrong page or the page they want does not exist. I recommend the question "Did you find what y... (more) |
— | almost 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #279891 |
Why here and not any of the other places that were specifically designed and programmed for this function? It is not like these facilities don't already exist. What would be new or different or useful about doing it here? (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
Some thought should probably go into the content of the 404 page for the questions section, though, in case we do get any search hits on the content that is removed. (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
Not so much opposed as acknowledging that the import play a part in attracting some of the old contributors over here, including me. But they are here now, if we haven't lost them all again. And the arguments against keeping the imported content seem compelling to me. A staged approach makes sense. P... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
Plus, what Olin Lathrop said about the message the copied content sends when people do find it. I'll admit I came here because I felt like I got my content back. But as writers we have to learn to see it from the public's POV. Why trust this place when it is so obviously a copy of the other place. We... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
Subject to correction, I believe that people come here two ways. 1. They come here directly to ask a new question, without searching for an old one. 2. They Google a question and are directed here by the search results. But the search results are not likely to point to the content copied here from th... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
I think so. It's a mausoleum here. And the old imported content is getting few votes (I just checked mine). But its the SEO issue with copied content that concerns me most. https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/duplicate-content-problems/ "Do NOT expect to rank high in Google with content found on other, more t... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
A new place, without all the stale old answers of a decade past might actually be a more attractive proposition than a branch of the old thing. Everyone love the next great app, right? If we can find a way to make it new. (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
Really, what it represents is a body of work for the people who created it. Which is bully for us, but beyond that, I don't see the value. I have my archive of my post on the other place and will rework some of them into blogpost maybe someday. To thrive, this place needs to be a better place to ask ... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278987 |
It won't help with Google seeing it as duplicate content, which won't help with our SEO. Also, it isn't really an archive of this site. It was not created here, but elsewhere. Its an archive of that other site, and says so on every item. And its not an up to date archive of that other site. So what i... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278912 |
All that said, though, the ability to import the content was one of the inducements for people (like me) who had created a lot of content at the other place to come over here. Catch-22? (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278912 |
Technically speaking, answering a question that the original asker won't see is still of value, since the point is (supposed to be) to create a permanent collection of answers that answer questions of value to many people. Whether that model actually works, or inspires people to write, is, of course ... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #278891 |
At a certain point one simply runs out of available characters and typographic alternatives, at which point formal notation like BNF is all that is left. Which is why BNF exists. And even then, BNF can become cumbersome for some syntaxes in which BNF's own syntax overlaps, which is why we have severa... (more) |
— | over 3 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276127 |
@Prahara, yes. The snobbery around old money vs new is important to bear in mind, but we are dealing with a period of over 200 years of rapid social and economic change, so attitudes and practices certainly changed very much over the course of the period. You can certainly find whatever you need to s... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276120 |
@DPT That was not my intention. The extreme character limits for comment for one to be more abrupt that one would like. My apologies. (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276129 |
I'm not sure that it would be all that rare. It seems a likely part of the moral development of every individual to rebel against the moral failings of the parents, even if it is only their failing to meet the standards of their culture. But cultures are never monolithic. Consider St.Francis rebellio... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276120 |
Lord of the Rings is a meditation on the nature of temptation. Every character of note is tempted in some way, and each responds differently. Tom Bombadil is the prelapsarian figure not tempted by the power of the Ring. (That is why he's important.) Everyone else is either corrupted by it, wise enoug... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276120 |
This is the reckless young knight story and it occurs over and over again in literature down through the ages. The theme is romance vs discipline. It is a universal theme. Karate Kid. The Sword in the Stone. Star Wars. (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276120 |
Luke's want is to be a hero. He's a dirt farmer on a dead end world. He's bored. Adventure calls, but he is naive, impatient, and romantic. He wants to rescue a princess. His need is for discipline, which he repeatedly resists -- at considerable cost. He finally submits himself to the discipline of t... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276104 |
@ArtOfCode the tag works. Thanks. (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276104 |
So where are these questions? I don't see them as new questions on the site. Or did they all get added by their creation date, and are thus buried deep in the list where no one will see them? How would we locate them if we were interested in reading them? (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #276107 |
Good point. You make me think that there is an even more specific point in the heroes journey that highlights the moral dilemma. It is the refusal of the call to adventure. Why does the character feel the call to adventure? There must be come moral imperative behind it. Why then do they initially ref... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #275954 |
Great analysis. I think something that this points to is that in a tragedy, the protagonist is offered a shot at redemption and refuses it. This means that there is no deflection in the onward course of their fall. The path does not bend the way it does in a heroic story. But the inflection point is ... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75052 |
It isn't the war, it's the wound. It's the pain of the wound. It's the dysfunction of the wound, and its attendant frustration. It's the exclusion and the loss of sense of self that comes with the wound. Emotion is not geopolitical, it is personal. Stalin was not wrong. One death is a tragedy. A mill... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75024 |
@Sigma, yes, language is hard. Or, to be more precise, language is organic, not mechanical, and therefore it is hard to understand it in mechanical terms, and hard to govern it using mechanical rules. Any system of prescriptive grammar has to be understood as at best an approximation of the organic w... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74972 |
@ArtOfCode Well that is unfortunate. The only use of last activity date that I can think of is to see if there is anything new to look at since you last visited. It's one more thing that makes it hard to keep up with what (if anything) is happening here. Anyone who visits the site regularly basically... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74972 |
It seems now to be reporting the last answer or edit on an answer, but not comments. If there are comments made after the last answer or edit to an answer was made, they don't seem to be reported as activity. For an example, check out the last modified date for this question. (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75011 |
I don't disagree with that. Users are familiar with the term click and familiar terms are incredibly persistent. (Horsepower, for instance!) Select and click are both viable options, IMHO. Trying to come up with some exotic new term is the fatal mistake. But we need to make the argument for the right... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75011 |
The language that the code speaks to the machine really has no bearing on the language that the documentation speaks to the user. The machine must be addressed in terms that the machine understands. The user must be addressed in terms that the user understands. They are often very different terms.
... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75003 |
Agreed. The only way this place thrives is if it becomes known as the best place to ask questions, and that only happens if it becomes known for having the best answers. Otherwise SE's first mover advantage will be insurmountable. More vigorous curation could certainly do a lot to improve the quality... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74906 |
This sounds a lot like the various types of reactions that you can make to a Facebook post. The difference being that on Facebook they don't accumulate to an reputation or other form of trust mechanism. But why shouldn't they, in principle? Getting a lot of "that worked" votes, for instance, might me... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74800 |
Good question. I'm not sure if there is just one word. "Arc" might come close, but I don't think it suggests the whole idea, perhaps only because it is so commonly used that its implications are forgotten. (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74810 |
The best decision that the Writing community on SE ever made was that critique was off topic. There is no shortage of critique sites on the web and they have developed rules and mechanisms to keep things fair and civilized. Let them do what they were designed to do (but by all means list them as a re... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74807 |
Maybe the standalone posts would work better. I was thinking one page per resource, rather than lists. The other thing could work to, I suppose: a request for resource recommendations followed by answers suggesting resources -- the dreaded list post. :-) But I was thinking more in terms of proactive ... (more) |
— | almost 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39580 |
No reputation? Does that mean there will be no form of social proof or a different one? And if a different one, what will it be? I'm struggling to see how a QA site without social proof is any different from a plain old web forum. (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39569 |
Maybe the list should be blank until you type the first character. That would suggest that the list is dynamic, and that you can type your own if you want to. If the list appears immediately, though, that looks like a set of preset choices. (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39563 |
Okay, I have addressed this in an edit to the answer as it is too long for the comments. (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39563 |
So, a story about a dark/evil character where everyone lives happily ever after? I think you need to define what you mean by a dark/evil character. Do you mean the tempter or the tempted? Because the tempted has a story arc, and the tempter does not. (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39563 |
Well then, how do you account for tragedy? How do you account for Hamlet? (Everybody dies.) Or Romeo and Juliet? (They both die.) Human life is tragic. (We all die.) Literature has always dealt with tragedy. And since life is tragic, there is every reason to care about a tragic character. We see our ... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39549 |
To which we might add that in many cases, the asker is looking for someone to confirm their own prejudice on some question, and will prefer answers that do that over potentially better answers that expose the fallacy of that prejudice. (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39532 |
For a character, yes. For a reader, thought? Not so much. That is why dramatic irony is powerful, but false suspense is deadly. (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39532 |
But that is a real minefield. If the danger that the reader thinks is there turns out not to be there, that is letting all the tension out of the story when it is revealed, and is likely to come as a huge disappointment. Unless the book is really about something else entirely, and real tension lies e... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39532 |
Keep it uncertain for whom, the first protagonist or the reader? There is a fundamental principle in drama called dramatic irony, in which the audience knows something that the character does not. This can be a powerful way to build anticipation and dread in the audience. (Classic example: the cheerl... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #38859 |
I think you are confusing point of view with object in view. The point of view character can observe several other characters acting, and can turn their attention from one character to another, while the story remains in their point of view. A point of view change changes where the action is reported... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39321 |
I'm noticing that the questions on the Lottery page seem to be highly weighted towards recent questions. Often, some of the same questions appear on the lottery page and the front page. Since the purpose is to dredge up older questions that might need a review, is there a way to weight its question s... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39096 |
You will not succeed in getting agents and publishers to tell you why they rejected your MS. They reject hundreds every day. They don't have time to give reasons, nor is there any benefit to them to do so. There are ways to get critiques of your submission materials though, through conferences and we... (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39414 |
It occurs to me that one of the ways in which social proof militates against curation is that any reduction of duplication or elimination of inferior answers involves reducing reputation (unless reputation is separated from individual content items somehow). (more) |
— | about 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39306 |
@Amadeus, Anything we say here is analysis. But analysis is usually more valuable for editing and critique than synthesis. If it is not working, analysis may help you discover why. But writing into an analytical framework is not always helpful or effective. A surgeon can diagnose and even heal, but t... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39306 |
@Amadeus, and further to this point: The portion of the story that precedes the inciting incident is about the establishment of the normal world. Yet in different stories and different genres, there may be more of less work required to establish the normal world. For any given story it may be a horri... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #39306 |
@Amadeus Yes, even if one grants that the only real rule is, keep the reader interested, that there may only be on general structure that does that over the length of a novel. Still, I have to question the effectiveness of writing to the averages. Averages, in themselves, are not gauges of perfection... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |